A Pierce County sheriff's major has been charged with vehicular assault and driving under the influence in connection with a July crash when he was off-duty in which two other people were injured.
Major Chadwick Dickerson was arrested in July after he allegedly crashed his personal pickup into a vehicle carrying six people, including a pregnant woman and her three children. Dickerson has been at the sheriff's office for 24 years. An 8-year-old boy and his 57-year-old grandmother were injured, according to charging documents.
Documents filed by the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which charged Dickerson on Wednesday, raise questions about sheriff's deputies' handling of the situation upon arriving at the scene. The investigation was turned over to the Washington State Patrol shortly after the crash.
According to the charging documents, Dickerson was driving his pickup truck when he failed to yield at an intersection in Graham, striking a Ford Expedition that had the right of way. A woman who was 7 months pregnant was driving the Expedition. Her husband, their kids, ages 3, 4 and 8, and the woman's mother, 57, were also in the car. All of them were taken to the hospital.
The grandmother had a fractured vertebrae and six rib fractures, and the 8-year-old boy had a traumatic hernia, bruising and an ankle injury.
Phone records show that shortly after the crash, Dickerson called his bureau chief, according to the charging documents. The bureau chief then texted a command duty officer that Dickerson was involved in a noninjury accident," the court documents state. That command duty officer reportedly called Dickerson and spoke with him briefly, according to prosecutors.
The first law enforcement officers on the scene were two sheriff’s deputies. Prosecutors allege that one of the deputies did not activate his body-worn camera until after he talked to Dickerson, about two minutes after the deputies arrived. After turning on his camera for a few minutes to speak with other people at the scene, he then told a deputy “I’ll just go talk to (Dickerson)” and manually turned off his camera, according to the documents. His camera was off for around 14 minutes, during which time prosecutors allege he spoke to Dickerson and had several phone conversations.
The other deputy briefly, and "inadvertently," the documents allege, turned on his camera. According to the documents, he could be heard telling colleagues that the collision was a vehicular assault.
Deputies discussed whether Dickerson showed signs of impairment. The command duty officer was contacted and determined that the sheriff's office would "keep the investigation," the documents state.
Dickerson asked a deputy if he could remove his golf clubs from his car, according to the documents. The deputy, who had her body camera activated, said "Yeah, I don't see why not," prosecutors allege. Dickerson's daughter, who arrived at the scene before law enforcement, made several trips back and forth carrying items out of his pick-up, according to the documents. Dickerson's daughter has since said she did not remove any alcohol from his car, the documents state.
About an hour after law enforcement responded, deputies let Dickerson leave without advising the Washington State Patrol, according to the documents. After Dickerson's arrest, a deputy wrote he "thought it was best" because he was injured, according to the report.
Minutes later, a State Patrol trooper arrived.
"Trooper (Shannon) McKenzie expressed surprise that Dickerson had left the scene and that the entire debris field from the collision — which is important evidence for evaluation the collision dynamics — had been cleared and cleaned up," the documents state.
A trooper went to the urgent care where Dickerson was and turned on his body camera, according to the documents. Dickerson was asked on-camera about whether he had been drinking, "for the first time during the investigation." The major said he'd had two vodka sodas while golfing and that his last drink was about 3 hours before the crash. He then said, "Are you going to read me my rights, because you're asking me incriminating questions?"
Dickerson declined to do field sobriety tests at the urgent care, but the trooper could allegedly "smell alcohol" and said Dickerson had "bloodshot eyes," so he was placed under arrest. A friend who was golfing with Dickerson later said he had four drinks at the golf course and "at least one more" at the friend's house after golfing, the documents state.
Dickerson's blood was collected more than three hours after the crash, according to the documents. The toxicology report states that his blood alcohol content was .09%, above the legal driving limit.
Dickerson has been on paid administrative leave since the day after the crash. His next court date is arraignment on Nov. 6.
The Pierce County sheriff's office said in a release that it would be conducting an administrative investigation into the charges and supports due process. On his personal X account, Sheriff Keith Swank speculated that the Pierce County prosecuting attorney's office gave charging documents to the media before informing him to "blindside him.
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